What To Do After Being Injured in a Scaffolding Accident in Colorado Springs

Working in the construction industry is full of dangers. In fact, this career carries more of a chance of death or serious injury than almost any other in the United States. Among the leading causes of major injury and death are falling accidents, many of which occur from scaffolding.

In general, accidents at the workplace are covered by workers’ compensation, which kicks in to cover your medical costs and lost wages. However, in certain cases where serious negligence is involved, a personal injury suit might be a better option. Learn everything you need to know about scaffolding accidents, including who can be held responsible and why you may need a work accident lawyer’s help.

Scaffolding Accidents and Safety

One of the most important agencies involved in keeping construction workers safe is OSHA, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. This federal organization publishes safety regulations which are specifically designed to prevent scaffolding accidents, and are considered authoritative by most courts.

In addition, many states have their own regulations which can be even more stringent, and individual companies can produce their own, more stringent still, requirements. In general, however, there are minimum guidelines that have to be met for a scaffold to be considered safe. These are:

  • It must support a minimum of four times the expected weight it will bear
  • It must never use loose barrels, bricks, or other loose objects for support
  • Any planking has to overlap by at least a foot and should extend past end support by anywhere from six inches to 1.5 feet.
  • When work is conducted above, head protection must be provided
  • All tools and materials must be secured, and debris must not collect on the scaffold
  • Lean-to and shore varieties of scaffolding are not permitted for use.

Scaffold-Related Lawsuits

In general, when you’re hurt in the course of employment, workers’ compensation will cover your injuries. However, there’s a limit to what you can collect under workers’ comp, and if the incident leading to your injury was the result of gross negligence, you may be able to file a personal injury suit. However, in order for this to happen, you have to prove that someone violated a duty of care that was owed to you.

Not everyone on your construction site owes this level of care towards you. You’ll need, in general, to be able to demonstrate that someone who was in charge of the scaffolding itself or who was working on it violated their responsibility towards you, that this violation resulted in an accident, and that you were injured as a result.

Getting Help Proving Negligence

Proving negligence in a work-related accident is tricky. If you’re an employee who can collect workers’ comp, you generally forfeit your ability to sue your employer for injuries. Injury suits are the exception, rather than the rule.

To be successful you will need solid evidence to back up your case, and the best way to get that is with the help and knowledge of a qualified personal injury attorney like those at Heuser & Heuser. Give us a call today and let’s talk about your case and the compensation to which you may be entitled.

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Frequently Asked Questions

There are a variety of things we look at when evaluating your case and determining its value. We look at how the accident occurred. We look at what sort of injuries you sustained. Do you have a permanent injury that will last the rest of your life? Are you going to have future medical bills? We look at lost wages. Did you lose your job? If you have permanent work restrictions as a result of the accident, you may not be able to find a job very easily in the future. These are some of the factors that we look at in evaluating a claim. Every case is unique and different. That’s why at our law firm, every case gets personal attention from the lawyer when it comes time to evaluate.

Insurance companies are in business for a reason: to make money. Anytime they are paying money on a claim, it means less money to their bottom line. They have literally hundreds of adjusters and hundreds of lawyers who are on their side trying to figure out how to prevent money from leaving their checkbooks. Quite frankly, you do need a lawyer to help you through this because your lawyer will make sure you’re properly compensated.

Cases settle before going to trial 80 to 90 percent of the time. However, that doesn’t mean there’s not a lot of work involved in getting a case settled outside of court. Sometimes you have to file a lawsuit and do a lot of what I call “legal maneuvering” to get a case settled. That means we take depositions from witnesses to the accident, from police officers, and from your doctors. But, yes, most cases will settle prior to trial.

We do get good results for our clients. We have settled hundreds, if not thousands, of cases where we’ve had large settlements. We’ve had substantial verdicts. We go to the mat for our clients if necessary. We’ll appeal cases. We’ll do whatever it takes to make sure our client is taken care of.

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Our Attorneys

Attorney Gordon Heuser | Heuser & Heuser | Colorado Springs

Gordon J. Heuser, Esq.

Attorney

As a Colorado Springs native, Gordon has been practicing in Southern Colorado for 35+ years.…

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Barkley D. Heuser, Esq.

Attorney

Barkley Heuser is a Colorado native, and has lived in Colorado Springs for over 59…

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Brennan Heuser | Personal Injury Attorney | Colorado Springs

Brennan D. Heuser, Esq.

Attorney

Brennan Heuser is a Colorado Native who graduated from the University of Miami, Fl with…

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